Current Work

Current Work

Artist's Statement

Artist's Statement

Being a potter is the giving and receiving of thanks. My pottery is
about food presentation. It is made to bring foods to light. While
function is a primary consideration, mood is of greater importance. I
try to create atmosphere with my tableware. Considerations about mood
or atmosphere contribute to the overall look and feel of my pieces.
Ideas come easily, but meaning seems to come in layers over decades of
time. It is meaning that gives strength to good ideas. I hope that my
ideas have grown with my skills.

I
am concerned with ritual as well. Rituals uncover the basic values,
aims and attitudes of a people. I am half Sicilian and half Cajun,
whose cultures are wrought with superstitions. Throw in a Catholic
upbringing and I have rituals dancing all about me. Cooking has given
me an avenue to explore and create my personal rituals. I began to cook
when I was a teenager, and it has been a strong, sustaining interest in
my life.

Currently I am interested in the notions of
hospitality. Hospitality, which means to give and to receive. I view
pottery as a vehicle of hospitality, because a pot gives and receives
simultaneously; it is both host and guest.

I think about things like:

Food-
which foods are chosen from those available; how they are prepared;
with whom, and when they are eaten; and how much time is allotted to
cooking and eating. Food is one of the means by which society creates
itself, and acts out its aims and functions.

How do I, as a
maker of tableware, direct the theater of dining? This is where I
believe I have some ability to give something to society. Here I become
the host and the guest. By thinking about foods as identity, as our
physical selves, as a way of thought, as sex, as power, as friendship,
as a medium of magic and witchcraft, as our time controller, I see food
as the root culture: that which gives meaning to our lives.

I
hope my ideas about dining will shape and dramatize the rituals
surrounding food. I want my tableware to embody the unspoken
assumptions of my heritage and culture.

Background History

Background History

Education1971 BFA, Kansas City Art Institute1975 MFA, Montana State University